Читать книгу Substitute Engagement - Jayne Bauling - Страница 7

LUCIA’S face ached from smiling and smiling as she pretended that she didn’t care, but the glass of champagne that Rob had taken from a tray borne by a passing waiter and handed to her had a tendency to shake if she didn’t concentrate.

It was difficult to concentrate on anything at all when her inner turmoil was so distracting, but she was determined not to let anyone know how shaken she was so she kept on smiling, forcing herself to talk sociably when she was introduced to Chester Watson—an attractive, stocky Englishman whom Rob said the Ballard Group had poached from one of Kenya’s most famous hotels.

It was obvious that Chester held his employer in high esteem, and Lucia saw why. Their conversation touching briefly on hotel business at one point, Rob became very much the high-powered tycoon, decisive and commanding, but without being condescending, looking at Chester as he spoke, using his name and soliciting his opinion.

They were soon joined by the young woman in whose company she had first seen Rob. Madelon Brouard was a few years older than Lucia, glamorous and sufficiently sophisticated to be able to reveal her interest in Rob without being crass about it in any way, even when he had his arm round another woman’s waist.

‘Incidentally, Chester, Lucia thinks she’d like a job here,’ Rob mentioned after the introductions were completed.

‘You would love it, Lucia,’ Madelon immediately put in enthusiastically. ‘I work in the hotel shop. It is the best employment I have had, and I have done most sorts of work. I was infected so badly by the wanderlust that I could not go home to take up my place at university when the one year of travelling I promised to myself ended. So here I stand, unqualified for all but casual labour to this day. But I have learned several languages and had many wonderful experiences. Did I say, Rob? Chester talks of moving me into Nadine’s post.’

‘So you won’t be replacing Nadine, Lucia,’ Rob said significantly, with a mocking smile that added silently, Although Nadine has replaced you in another area.

‘In fact, I’ve an idea that we might have something unique for you, Lucia,’ Chester told her. ‘In view of who you are—Ernest Flanders’ daughter—and your own special interest and abilities. Oh, yes, I’ve heard a lot about you since I’ve been here. You have fans on the island, it seems, and, of course, your father is remembered with admiration.’

‘I’m sure I can be useful,’ Lucia submitted eagerly. ‘And, while I can’t match Madelon’s several languages, I am as fluent in French as in English, because when we weren’t living in the Comoros we’d often be in places like Mauritius, Réunion and the Seychelles, and I usually had to attend French schools.’

‘And you get on with people?’ Chester probed.

‘Very well,’ she claimed confidently, and was piqued by Rob’s sceptical smile.

Well, of course he was an exception. What else did he expect when he had been the bearer of bad news, delivering it with more sadistic enjoyment than compassion? Not that she wanted his sympathy, or anyone else’s either—

It was at this point in her angry thoughts that Rob removed his arm from around her waist, and Lucia was subject to a moment’s sheer, unreasoning panic in response to the loss of its warmth and, she realised belatedly, its support.

‘Will you excuse me, please? Nadine is sending out agitated signals so I’d better go and play my part. I won’t be long, angel,’ he added to Lucia, his tone indulgent. ‘Chester and Madelon will look after you.’

Furious, she would have told him that she didn’t need looking after if it hadn’t been for the inhibiting presence of the other two.

So it was shaming that his departure should leave her feeling so oddly bereft, but she would have died rather than show it. She watched him go, attracting as he always did much feminine attention and rewarding it with the occasional smile when eye contact was made, but she thought that she knew where his real interest lay, as it was with Madelon that she had first seen him.

Lucia turned to Chester Watson determinedly. The manager just had time to relieve her mind by assuring her that employment at the hotel included board and lodging if required, when someone interrupted, demanding his urgent attention.

‘Perhaps you’ll come and see me tomorrow morning and I’ll tell you what I’ve got in mind, Lucia?’ he suggested quickly. ‘I really must deal with this now, unfortunately.’

‘I like him, but it is Rob Ballard I find attractive.’ With both men gone, Madelon seized the opportunity to indulge in girl-talk. ‘You too? I heard something, that you were engaged to Thierry Olivier previously, but Rob is much more exciting. I am not criticising your former choice, you understand, and Thierry is beautiful, but Rob is more—more of a man! You have known him long?’

‘A while,’ Lucia responded ambiguously, liking Madelon and aware that at any other time she would probably have been quite happy to play the rating game, however pointless it really was when taste was such a subjective thing.

She hadn’t meant to make use of the fiction that Rob had established, her pride rebelling at the idea of needing anyone’s help or co-operation to get her through this ordeal, but she shrank from admitting that until a short while ago she had believed that she still was engaged to Thierry.

‘Not long enough to let him go?’ Madelon prompted mock-hopefully. ‘But perhaps he will come here more frequently and remain longer if you are here, and everything is fair, do you admit? We will have fun!’

Several people who remembered Lucia began to drift up and greet her, and once again she found herself tacitly participating in the charade that Rob had initiated, smiling determinedly as they made knowing comments about her having landed a bigger fish, apparently under the impression that they were using a wittily appropriate pun.

Lucia felt ashamed of herself, but knowing the truth would have made them as uncomfortable as she would have been in telling, if the relief and happiness they all evinced at seeing her apparently unperturbed by the occasion were anything to go by.

The fact that they had obviously been concerned for her produced further emotional conflict for Lucia. She was touched to know they cared, but that they had needed to care was humiliating.

Finally, when a hush had fallen and Rob was making a simple announcement of the engagement of his sister Nadine to Thierry Olivier, Lucia made herself look once more at the man who had let her in for all this.

It was a shock to find Thierry looking at her, but she kept right on smiling, and after a moment she saw his gaze drop, apparently to her hands, now tensely locked round the stem of her glass, and then an incomprehen-sible mixture of expressions flitted over his sensitive features, presumably in reaction to the absence of her ring.

Thierry! Lucia was rigid with rage and hurt, but she understood why he had done it this way. Thierry was a sensitive yet passive man, abhorring emotional conflict in particular and too much raw emotion generally.

Even in the first flush of their youthful love just over three years ago, he had been uncomfortable with her grief over her father’s sudden death, staying away from her until he could be sure that she had it under control. Now it occurred to her that these traits had become more pronounced over the years; he had come to rely on her for so much, touchingly confident in her ability to deal with any unpleasantness on his behalf.

Lucia remembered the day that seemed to symbolise that reliance, when his beloved dog had run in front of one of the island water-carrier vehicles, and he had been utterly unable even to look at the poor animal, begging her to take it away, to find help for it if it was still alive, throwing down his car-keys for her and retreating.

She supposed that some people would have called that weak, but she had seen it as a measure of his faith in her. She understood and loved him—and now she had lost him. There wasn’t going to be any wedding, or a home that wasn’t borrowed or rented, or the security of knowing that she could stay put and never have to think about moving on.

She was doing it again, Lucia realised—the thing that had begun to disturb her over the last year, thinking of marriage to Thierry in terms of having a home. Well, neither marriage nor a home was any longer on the agenda, so she wasn’t going to worry about it now.

Abruptly, accepting the reality, Lucia raised her glass along with everyone else and toasted the newly engaged couple, her gaze resting a moment on the girl whom Thierry had preferred to her and then straying to the man whom Madelon had called ‘more of a man’.

True enough, if you believed that manliness embraced insensitivity and an unwarranted sense of superiority. Right now Rob Ballard was probably congratulating himself on having saved the day for his sister.

‘You must be thirsty!’ Madelon laughed from beside her, and, looking down, Lucia realised that she had unthinkingly drained her glass. The champagne was available because hotels which catered for foreign visitors were exempt from the Koran-based laws of the archipelago. ‘I too. I will find a waiter.’

Madelon took her empty glass away and Lucia went on staring at Rob, hating him for being the only person to know how this had hit her.

‘Lucia.’

The coolly polite greeting had her turning to confront Thierry’s widowed mother, as trimly immaculate as ever.

Although a light, in-flight meal was the only thing that she had eaten all day, the champagne couldn’t have gone to her head this quickly, but Lucia felt her smile widening outrageously, and the words that emerged from her mouth carried more expression than she had ever before permitted herself in addressing this woman.

‘Beth! Congratulations! This must be an amazingly happy day for you.’

‘Oh, it is,’ Beth Olivier agreed smoothly. ‘Especially as I see you’re taking it so well. But then, judging by the company I saw you in earlier, you’ve found someone to distract you—and probably not for the first time over the years. So, all in all, Rob Ballard has been a force for good, although I still have to deplore these big, new hotels, spoiling the coastline and doing who knows what damage to the environment.’

‘The environmental impact studies were favourable to their erection,’ Lucia pointed out, finding a perverse relish in the realisation that she no longer had to be so careful not to disagree with Beth—at least Thierry had done her one favour!

‘And unless you want to return to the barter system, or cowries for currency, their presence benefits the local people and the economy in all sorts of ways, not least by providing employment, doesn’t it? I still remember the high incidence of kwashiorkor among the island children the first time my parents and I lived here, in the mid-eighties. Hopefully that’s becoming history.’

‘Darling.’ Rob had joined them in time to hear her words, putting a casual arm across Lucia’s shoulders and addressing Beth as he continued, ‘I’m discovering that Lucia is incredibly loyal—always ready to defend me.’

His tone and smile were so indulgent that Lucia was disconcerted, needing to remind herself that it was all an act.

‘Oh, I suppose I have to forgive you, Rob, since it has been the Ballard Group’s venture here that enabled my son to meet someone so ideally suited to him,’ Beth allowed rather coyly, preparing to move on.

‘Well, I don’t suppose I’ll be seeing much of you, Lucia. I think it would be better if you didn’t come round to the estate at all, don’t you? Misguided though it was, we can’t get away from the fact that Thierry and you were once an item, and we don’t want to distress dear Nadine, do we? She’s staying with us, of course. I’m sure Rob agrees with me.’

‘Lucia is going to be too busy to have much time for casual socialising anyway,’ Rob claimed, with so much caressing significance that Lucia stiffened resentfully, effectively distracted from the additional humiliation of hearing that she was unwelcome in the Olivier home.

Still further distraction was provided by the way his fingers were now stirring idly against the smooth skin of her upper arm, their warmth and the light movement producing an inner frisson of awareness, so she hardly noticed Beth’s departure.

‘Stop it,’ she finally managed in a sharp little voice, moving out of his reach.

‘I told you, it’s not personal, Lucia,’ he drawled, the taunting challenge sparkling in the smoky eyes making them as brilliant as gems, and as hard. ‘But there is one thing about you that has actually succeeded in arousing my interest, and that’s your defence of the sort of controversial progress that goes with the tourist industry. Biologists aren’t usually part of the backlash against green concerns.’

‘And I’m not! I just happen to think people are the most important living things on the planet,’ she snapped. ‘Will you excuse me, please, and apologise to Madelon for me? She was getting more champagne, but I see someone has detained her.’

‘Where are you going?’ Rob demanded, as arro-gantly as if he had the right to know.

‘To fetch my luggage from the Olivier estate, as that’s where I left it and since Beth Olivier has just made it crystal-clear that I am no longer welcome there.’

Lucia was horrified to hear her voice trembling with the rage that she felt against the things that had been done to her today. It should have been one of the happiest days of her life—her returning at last without the prospect of yet another departure and another year’s exile lurking a month or two ahead.

‘I’ll get a car and drive you there,’ Rob said.

‘Don’t bother,’ she returned rebelliously. ‘Presumably Thierry and dear Nadine will be here a while yet, so I can be in and out while this party is still going on.’

‘I’ll drive you,’ he repeated calmly.

‘Why?’ she asked defiantly. ‘If “dear” Nadine doesn’t know anything about it, she’s not in danger of being upset, and that’s why you interfered in the first place, isn’t it? You weren’t rescuing me.’

‘Not intentionally, but as you appear to have taken advantage of the impression I set out to create, at least to the extent of refraining from saying or doing anything to contradict it, it seems that I was in fact rescuing you,’ he observed mockingly. ‘But let’s leave and get your luggage before your current mood leads you to shatter the illusion and waste all the effort you’ve put in.’

‘Thereby upsetting “dear” Nadine,’ Lucia added tartly, her hostility leaping in response to the insight which enabled him to recognise the present fragility of her control.

‘Listen to yourself, Lucia,’ Rob advised her on an iron note of warning. ‘Come on, let’s go—What is it?’

She had made a small sound of exasperated realisation, and now she hesitated, trying to work out if the little money she still had available to her would stretch to the sort of prices that she guessed most of the new hotels would charge.

‘Chester Watson was called away before he could tell me what he has in mind for me, so I’m not actually employed here yet, when bed and board will be available to me. I’ll need to book a room for tonight if there’s a vacancy,’ she admitted, trying to sound casual about it.

‘We’ll organise something if there isn’t But it can wait until we get back from the Olivier place.’

‘This thing really is full of holes,’ Lucia accused resentfully a few minutes later, when she was seated beside him in the sort of up-market French car which would have been a rarity on the island not so many years ago. ‘The housekeeper could give everything away.’

Rob slanted her a calculating look. ‘D’you think she can be persuaded or bribed not to?’

Lucia shrugged. ‘It’s possible, if she thinks she’s doing Beth down in some way. Beth has never been exactly popular with any of her housekeepers. That’s why they change so often.’

At least she didn’t have to worry about sounding disloyal now that Beth was no longer destined to be her mother-in-law, she reflected drily.

‘I understand she’s planning to go and live in South Africa once she’s seen her son safely married to Nadine,’ Rob commented.

Her brief laugh had a brittle sound. ‘She wouldn’t even consider it when I was the one he was marrying.’

‘Because she saw the damage you were doing him, and she’s a devoted mother,’ he suggestesd brutally. ‘It’s obvious that she dislikes you, but Nadine really will suit him better than you.’

‘Nadine can hardly know him yet,’ she claimed furiously. ‘And how well does she understand him? He’s a passive man for a start—the kind who turns the other cheek, if you know what I mean.’

‘Yes, and that passivity was becoming a weakness when he had a character like you willing to run his life for him. I sensed both resentment and shame in his attitude while he was busy hedging about his relationship with you. With Nadine he’ll be able to feel like a man again. You were obviously emasculating him,’ Rob asserted contemptuously.

‘What do you know about any of it?’ Lucia demanded tempestuously. ‘You can barely know Thierry either, and you’ve only just met me.’

‘I know you haven’t put him first. You left him for most of three years, didn’t you?’ he prompted derisively.

‘I had to get my degree—’ she began.

‘Of course you did,’ he agreed sardonically. ‘Naturally that came first. You’re a career woman.’

‘I don’t believe this! Do you really have some kind of reactionary prejudice against women with careers?’ Lucia taunted, genuinely startled.

‘No prejudice at all, Lucia,’ he corrected her smoothly. ‘How can I when so many key positions within the Ballard Group are occupied by your sex? But Thierry Olivier doesn’t need a career-orientated woman for his personal partner anymore than I do.’

‘You? You’re the complete opposite of Thierry.’ Sheer astonishment provoked the spontaneous protest, but then she caught herself up. ‘For one thing, you’re utterly insensitive.’

‘And he’s so sensitive, leaving you to learn that you’ve been replaced from whoever might tell you? But add possessiveness to whatever other faults you’ve decided I have and you’ll know why I’d hate to be personally involved with someone who doesn’t put me first.’

‘I’d call that egotistical,’ she argued.

‘That too. Whatever, I like warm, generous, emotional women who give all of themselves to a relationship, not just the part that isn’t reserved for the pursuit of ambition.’

‘I’m really not very interested in knowing what sort of women you like,’ Lucia told him dismissively, although just for a moment she had found herself intrigued.

But the exchange had been too personal—an attack on her, in essence—and if he really thought that she was career-obsessed to the exclusion of love then it just showed how little he knew about the whole situation, and she ought to be indifferent to his opinion—as she was!

‘And I already know what sort of men you like—when you can be bothered with them at all,’ Rob returned amusedly.

‘The same kind dear Nadine likes, obviously—and isn’t she going to find it a little difficult to believe you’re interested in me?’ Lucia added curiously as the question occurred to her. ‘She’s your sister, so she must know what your tastes are.’

‘We’ll appear to drift apart in due course.’ He was unperturbed. ‘Yes, as you’ve said, the thing has holes in it, but it was the best I could come up with in the necessity of the moment.’

‘You’re going to find it inconvenient if I insist on maintaining this fiction you’ve devised,’ she ventured maliciously.

‘Unfortunately for you, fortunately for me, I won’t be around for very long.’

‘Then, believe me, I consider myself equally fortunate!’

Said feelingly, it made him laugh, but he didn’t take it up. Initially Lucia was relieved to be left to her thoughts, but she swiftly discovered that it had been the challenge he’d presented and the consequent need to keep arguing with him that had kept her strong. Allowed to dwell on what Thierry had done to her, her hold on herself loosened and she weakened rapidly, in danger of breaking down.

Behind the dark lenses, she blinked furiously, and it required an effort to make her lips stop trembling.

‘Wait here,’ Rob instructed her when they drew up outside the house on the estate that Thierry had inherited from his father. It was a typically French Colonial building, only to be expected as the islands had been French before three of the four had opted for independence in the form of a Federal Islamic Republic, and Thierry’s father had been French. ‘I’ll get your things and talk to the housekeeper. How many pieces of luggage are there?’

She told him jerkily, hating herself for letting him do this without her offering even a token protest; hating herself for having let him take charge in the first place and continue to control the situation, but terrified of all that she might betray if she attempted to speak now.

So she sat there in the car with the window open, a little soothed by the island scents carried on the tropical afternoon breeze, for these were the Perfumed Isles to those who lacked the sense of evolution that made another sobriquet, that of the Coelacanth Isles, equally romantic.

The estate produced ylang-ylang, the base for most perfumes, and from here she could see a small plantation of the trees with their strange, twisted shapes but exotic blooms. Precious woods, vanilla pods, which were an offshoot of the orchid, and the spices for which the islands were famous—cloves, coriander, saffron and more—all played their part in giving Grande Comore its uniquely characteristic fragrance.

From where she was she could also see part of the lower slopes of Mount Karthala, the volcano dominat-ing the island, its past eruptions responsible for the stretches of black rock which alternated with white sands at certain points along the coast and extended beneath the ocean to be visible through the clear turquoise water. The emissions periodically issuing from vents in the mountain’s sides were a reminder that it was still active.

Rob Ballard’s reappearance distracted her. Lucia watched him striding towards the car, carrying her luggage as effortlessly as if it were weightless. So tall and lithe, he had a loose, easy way of moving that was utterly self-confident, and she felt a surge of hostile emotion that was mostly resentment. It was galling to have to accept help from him, especially under circumstances as embarrassing as these.

She supposed it could be said that she was actually using him, since his assistance wasn’t really aimed at her at all, but she could take no comfort from the thought. Too much shame was attached to the mere fact that she should need to make use of him.

He was smiling sardonically as he got into the car after placing her luggage in the boot.

‘You were right; the housekeeper was amenable to forgetting you and your luggage had ever been here. She really entered into the spirit of things, especially after I hinted that you and Madame Olivier are mortal enemies. I gather she’s on the verge of seeking employment elsewhere.’

He paused, treating her to brief, raking assessment. ‘I also implied that it was me you’d really been looking for, but because we’re both Ballard you’d somehow got my whereabouts confused with my sister’s.’

‘Like a typical dumb blonde,’ Lucia supplemented caustically, disgusted with herself for feeling relieved on hearing him.

‘You’re not exactly blonde,’ he observed dismissively as he started the car.

‘Give me a few days! I’ve hardly seen the sun these last few weeks because of my exams.’

‘Scarcely the greatest of the sacrifices you’ve made to your future career,’ Rob mocked, the reminder unkind because just for a second or two she had forgotten Thierry, revelling in the awareness that she was at last free of the pressures attendant on keeping her promise to her father.

‘As it turns out! How old is this precious sister of yours?’ she demanded abruptly.

Catching the antagonistic note, he shot her a con-temptuous look.

‘Don’t blame Nadine. She couldn’t have stolen Olivier from you unless he wanted to be stolen. He’s not that weak. My sister is twenty-five,’ he added neutrally.

‘Twenty-five?’ Lucia repeated with heartfelt outrage. ‘And she still needs her big brother going around smoothing the way for her, shielding her from anything that might upset her? I’m only twenty-one and I haven’t had anyone looking out for me like that since I was a teenager.’

And she didn’t want or need anyone doing so either, did she? Her mother was a remote figure, so, essentially, she had been alone in the world since her father’s death—a condition which marriage to Thierry would have ended. Now it looked as if she was going to go on being alone, neither belonging to anyone nor with anyone who belonged to her.

‘And look at you now!’ he rejoined mercilessly. ‘It’s none of your business, but Nadine has had some miserable experiences in the past, so she deserves this chance of happiness.

‘She has the sort of quiet personality that can invite bullying in certain circumstances, but she won’t get that from a non-confrontational character like Olivier, and in return she’ll be able to use her particular strength—an instinctive knowledge of the subtle tricks of a very old-fashioned kind of femininity—to boost him. Strange as it seems, the relationship works.’

‘Oh, and because of all this—this marriage made in heaven—I really ought to sit back and let her have him?’ she challenged indignantly.

‘Why not? You don’t really want him.’ Rob sounded indifferent.

‘Perhaps not, but I could still get him back,’ she asserted, suddenly in a mood of wild perversity.

Of course she didn’t want Thierry back! Not now, when he had proved himself so undeserving of her love, she acknowledged in silent fury; but getting him back would prove to Rob that she was worth something as a woman—

Only why should she want to prove it, and to this man specifically? The only opinion of her that mattered was her own, and she knew her worth so she had nothing to prove—nothing at all!

‘Try it,’ Rob was inviting her softly.

‘I just might,’ she flung back at him defiantly.

‘You’ll regret it.’

‘Are you threatening me?’

‘Yes.’ It was silkily ruthless, and she met it with a brief, scornful laugh. ‘Warning you, anyway—and warning you too that you’ve got a way to go still before you’re free to give way to tears or a trantrum or whatever it is you do when you’re thwarted, so I suggest you try to control your pique for the time being.’

Pique! She really and truly hated him, Lucia decided tempestuously, although not entirely for the way he was trivialising her feelings, because her pride half-welcomed that as being preferable to having him know how badly this had hit her even while her sensitivity was outraged by his unfeeling attitude.

But how could he know just how precariously she was teetering on the edge of losing control of her emotions when he had known her so short a time? It was infuriating, the way he kept guessing what was going on in her heart and her head, and guessing so accurately.

‘What’s the tariff?’ she asked, carefully expressionless, when they reached the hotel, and when he told her she worked out that she could just afford a night here, plus, perhaps, a meal this evening, as breakfast was included. After that she would be broke, so she just hoped that she would be able to begin whatever job Chester Watson thought he had for her at once.

‘Of course, it would be more appropriate to the illusion we’re trying to establish if I simply installed you in the suite I use here—and there is a second bedroom,’ Rob went on, a gleam of mockery appearing in his eyes as she opened her mouth to protest ‘Relax, Lucia! There’s a limit to what I’m prepared to do in my sister’s interests. I’m not inflicting you on myself.’

‘I wouldn’t agree anyway. You can’t dislike me half as much as I dislike you,’ she flared, automatically removing her sunglasses as they entered the spacious, ultra-modern reception area, and then wishing she hadn’t but deciding that it would constitute too much of a betrayal to replace them. ‘Oh, hell!’

‘What now?’ he demanded irritably as she came to a halt.

Lucia had recognised the handsome face and soft dark eyes of one of a trio of young men on duty at the reception counter. She regarded Rob warily.

‘Was Hassan Mohammed the employee you said felt sorry for me?’ she asked stiffly.

‘Yes.’ The answer was devoid of sympathy, understanding or even amusement, yet he was looking at her expectantly. ‘A past or future interest, Lucia?’

‘A friend,’ she emphasised, wondering what had made him ask such a question, and in that particular tone. He couldn’t possibly see her as some sort of femme fatale, especially when Thierry had just rejected her!

Lucia drew her shoulders back. So there was to be one last call on her strength today. Her friendship with Hassan went back to the days when they had been childhood playmates, the first time she and her parents had lived on the island. He was one of the kindest people she knew, but she didn’t want his pity and he had to be convinced that it was superfluous.

She tilted her chin at an angle, fixed a smile to her face, willing her eyes to be clear and shining, and went forward, aware of Rob Ballard at her side.

Mercifully, Hassan made no reference to Thierry, being more interested in hearing whether she thought she had passed her exams and telling her how delighted he was to have secured a position here where he was being trained in all aspects of the hotel business.

Once again Lucia was aware of Rob as the dynamic magnate, as it was obvious that Hassan and the other two young men considered themselves honoured by his brief attention when he asked a question or two.

‘Lucia may be joining you on the staff temporarily if Chester Watson feels she has something to offer,’ Rob told Hassan when the formalities of registering were concluded.

Lucia absorbed the ‘temporarily’, and she was no longer smiling as they turned and moved away from the counter.

‘What are you hanging around for?’ she demanded aggressively in a low voice. ‘I hope you’re not expecting me to thank you?’

‘I’d be disappointed if I was, wouldn’t I?’ he retorted sardonically in an equally low voice. ‘Don’t worry, you’re free of my company as of now. I must get back to the party outside. But, much as we both wish this could be a permanent parting of the ways, I’ll need to see you some time tomorrow so we can discuss whether it’s necessary for us to continue with this act.’

‘It isn’t!’ she assured him in an intense, hostile whisper, which made his brilliant smile come as a surprise.

But it was only for the benefit of the men at the counter and the handful of other people around, as she realised when he raised his voice and said, ‘I’ll see you later, angel.’

Then he was striding easily away from her, attracting the usual amount of fascinated attention but ignoring it, presumably intent on taking up with Madelon Brouard where her own inconvenient arrival had forced him to leave off, Lucia decided acidly.

A few minutes later as the young man who had brought her luggage up to her room departed, closing the door quietly behind him, she was alone at long last, the need for pretence over.

The first thought to occur to her came in the form of the belated realisation that Rob still had her engagement ring in his pocket, and she slapped her hand down onto the dressing-table top in a fury of frustration, irrationally inclined to blame him for everything that had gone wrong and all the humiliations that had been inflicted on her this day.

Then, as her shoulders slumped and she collapsed onto a pretty wooden chair, Lucia burst into tears.